Most of my work is concentrated on the music of the traditional Irish harp with metal wire strings. I started this work in earnest in the late 1990s I think. That’s what most of the rest of this website is all about, and you can read as much as you like here about my harp research and playing.
But there are other musics I am interested in as well.
The longest-running and most important music for me is the bells.
I was taught English change-ringing by my mother when I was a young boy, in Fawley, Hampshire. In the early 1990s I rang regularly with the Oxford University Society at Holywell, SMV, Mary Mag and New. After a break from ringing I returned to live in Oxford, and I rang at Iffley village, and with the Oxford Diocesan Guild. After I moved to Scotland I rang at the University tower in St Andrews, and did a lot of teaching there as well; I was elected vice-captain of the St Andrews band. Now I am living in Armagh, my nearest ringing tower is Lurgan, and I have been teaching a group of young beginners there. In 2021 I was elected as Northern District Ringing Master in the Irish Association of Change Ringers, and served the full 3-year term (2022-24)
I am also interested in acoustics, psycho-acoustics, tuning, ethnomusicology, organology, the evolutionary basis of hearing and vocalisation, etc.
A while back I did some abstract electronic composition. I have no idea if it is any good or not.